Alpha Kieran personally invited me to serve as Beta of Silvercrest Pack.

But on my second day in the territory, my neighbor Gloria dragged her disheveled daughter Daisy to the center of the training grounds and dropped to her knees, accusing my son Koda of sexually assaulting her barely-eighteen-year-old daughter.

Daisy stripped off her clothes in front of everyone, revealing horrifying bruises and claw marks.

Gloria had even paid top dollar for a witch to perform a memory trace spell.

Daisy sobbed until she nearly passed out. "Koda said if I didn't do as I was told, he'd bite me to death..."

The entire pack was in an uproar. Everyone was screaming for blood.

"Alpha, why should someone like her be our Beta?"

"Vera can't even control her own son — how is she supposed to lead this pack?"

They even demanded that Alpha have Koda seized and executed on the spot.

I wasn't the least bit worried.

Because when they finally brought Koda to the training grounds and everyone got a good look at him —

Every single person there, including Gloria's family, froze.

I nearly burst out laughing.

…

I had been personally invited by Alpha Kieran to join Silvercrest Pack as its new Beta.

Today was only my second day here.

Just minutes ago, my next-door neighbor Gloria had dragged her disheveled daughter Daisy to the dead center of the training grounds, where they both dropped to their knees.

Dozens of pack members in the middle of their morning drills stopped what they were doing and crowded around.

Gloria wailed at the top of her lungs, begging Alpha Kieran to deliver justice for her and her daughter.

Tears ran down her face in streaks, her voice hoarse and shrill as she screamed about the crimes committed against them.

Or rather, the crimes my son Koda had committed.

She got right in my face, shrieking that Koda had sexually assaulted her eighteen-year-old daughter Daisy the night before.

"That animal threatened Daisy — said he'd strangle her if she didn't comply!" Gloria's voice carried across the entire training grounds.

She demanded that Alpha execute Koda immediately and that I pay them ten million dollars in damages.

Daisy knelt in the dirt, arms locked around her own shoulders, trembling violently. She could barely breathe through her sobs, nodding frantically at every word her mother said.

The pack members around us began whispering, hostility plain on their faces. They'd already resented me — an outsider the Alpha had handpicked as Beta. Now every ounce of that resentment had ignited into something much worse.

Curses erupted from the crowd. They called my son Koda a shameless animal.

That was when Gloria's husband Harold shoved his way out of the angry mob.

He was nothing more than a low-ranking warrior, but his face was scarlet and the veins in his neck bulged as he stormed straight up to me, close enough that I could smell his breath.

"Your son did this to my daughter, and he can't even face us? Where the hell is he?"

Spit flew as he spoke.

"You think hiding him is gonna help? Someone's gotta bleed for this!"

Harold spun around and demanded that Alpha arrest Koda immediately and execute him right there on the training grounds.

The scene spiraled out of control. The roar of outrage was deafening.

Alpha Kieran stepped forward, his expression dark.

"Enough." His voice cut through the chaos. He turned his sharp gaze on me. "Vera. What do you have to say?"

I stood calmly at the edge of the grounds.

My gaze drifted from the mother and daughter kneeling in the dirt, to Harold, who looked ready to lose his mind.

My voice was perfectly level.

"My son did not assault Daisy." I met Alpha Kieran's eyes. "And he couldn't have."

That quiet denial landed like a bomb.

Instead of calming anyone down, it whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

A pack member threw his fist in the air. "Throw this outsider Beta out — she's shielding a criminal!"

Others joined in. "How can Alpha let someone this heartless lead our pack?"

As I watched the chaos unfold, my mind flashed through the events of the past two days.

When I'd been moving in yesterday, Gloria was the first one to come over. She'd been incredibly friendly, helping me carry boxes, casually prying into my personal life until she learned I had a son.

Her eyes lit up. She gushed about her daughter Daisy, who'd just turned eighteen.

I hadn't thought much of it. I'd said offhandedly, "My son just came of age too."

Gloria beamed and said they were practically the same age — what a wonderful coincidence to be living right next door.

The very next morning, Gloria showed up pounding on my door with Daisy in torn clothes.

The moment I opened up, she was in my face, accusing Koda of cornering Daisy on the path the night before and dragging her into the woods behind Pack House to assault her.

The mother-daughter duo refused to let it go. They laid out their terms: ten million dollars in compensation, and Koda had to marry Daisy in a formal Bonding ceremony.

Gloria threatened that if I refused, she'd report everything to Alpha and have Koda put to death under pack law.

I knew my son's situation. There was absolutely no way he could have done what they were claiming.

So I shut them down without hesitation.

After I threw them out, the pair didn't give up. Which was how we'd ended up here — with them kneeling before Alpha on the training grounds, begging him to take their side.

By now the crowd was near boiling point.

Alpha Kieran's expression hardened. He finally unleashed a wave of his Alpha dominance.

The invisible force slammed down over the entire grounds, and every voice died in its throat.

But in the very next second, Daisy — who had been sobbing on her knees this whole time — suddenly stood up.

In front of everyone, she ripped off her tattered jacket.

Bare skin exposed to the open air.

Her body was covered in sickening bruises and welts.

And crisscrossing between them — deep, unmistakable claw marks.

Gloria took one look at the injuries on Daisy's body and lost it completely. She threw herself at her daughter, dropping to her knees.

"My baby! My poor baby!" She reached out with shaking hands toward the bruises and claw marks, but couldn't bring herself to make contact. Her fingers stopped just short of Daisy's skin as she choked on her own sobs.

"Look at her! All of you, look at what that animal did to my daughter!"

Daisy knelt half-naked in the center of the training grounds, hands covering her face, shoulders heaving.

"It was Koda... he dragged me into the woods... he said he'd kill me if I didn't comply..." Her voice came in broken fragments, barely audible.

Harold's head snapped up, his glare burning into me.

"Take a good look!" he snarled, voice raw. "Look at what your son did to my girl!"

The three of them clung to each other on the training grounds, sobbing. It was a wretched sight.

Among the watching pack members, many had tears burning in their own eyes, anger building behind them.

Hostile glares converged on me. Someone screamed that I was heartless.

Several warriors turned directly to Alpha, shouting their objections.

"Alpha, how can someone like her be our Beta?"

"Vera can't even control her own son — how is she supposed to manage the pack?"

Through all of it, I stood exactly where I was, watching with flat detachment.

Not so much as a flinch.

It wasn't that I was heartless. Their performance was just that pathetic.

Seeing the situation about to implode, Alpha Kieran released an even heavier pulse of dominance. The pressure swept over the grounds, and the noise died instantly.

"Both sides will state their case." His voice was low and final. "Until I've made my ruling, no one moves."

At the Alpha's command, Harold hauled himself to his feet.

Breathing hard, he launched into his account.

"Last night, Daisy was walking back from the patrol outpost at the edge of the woods."

"She took the path behind Pack House, and someone grabbed her from behind — covered her mouth and dragged her into the trees!"

Daisy clutched Harold's arm, trembling as she picked up where he left off.

"I saw his face while I was fighting back."

"It was Koda! He even told me he was the new neighbor who'd just moved in."

My gaze settled on Daisy's tear-streaked face, and I cut in without warmth.

"How exactly did you identify him as my son?"

Daisy flinched, then bit her lip and answered loudly.

"Because on moving day, I ran into Koda in the hallway!"

"He came up to me and introduced himself — he told me his name was Koda!"

I listened to every word of her tearful accusation, then called her out without an ounce of mercy.

"Every word of that is a lie." I held her stare, my voice quiet but cutting.

That pushed Harold over the edge. He let out a roar and lunged at me.

Several warriors reacted instantly, grabbing him and holding him in place.

Harold thrashed against them, screaming. "Are the injuries on my daughter's body fake too? Vera, do you have any conscience at all?"

Daisy broke down completely, covering her face and shrieking.

"Why would I use my own honor to frame someone?" She was sobbing so hard she could barely stay upright.

I watched their collective hysteria and felt nothing I needed to show them.

"If she'd actually seen my son, she would never have made such a ridiculous claim."

Daisy was wailing on the ground, and I almost felt amused.

I knew the truth.

On moving day, the Pembertons had only ever seen me. Koda had stayed in the car the entire time. He hadn't shown his face to a single person.

More importantly — if they had actually seen Koda, they never would have pinned a charge like sexual assault on him.

Harold let out a harsh bark of laughter and cut me off.

He stepped closer, crowding my space.

"Is your son some kind of big shot?"

"You think my daughter would throw away her own reputation just to frame an outsider?"

Daisy immediately stopped sobbing and backed up her father at the top of her lungs.

"I saw Koda with my own eyes!"

"On moving day, I bumped into him coming out of your place in the hallway."

She clutched at the torn fabric of her clothes, absolutely certain of her claim.

"He came up and introduced himself to me!"

Gloria heard her daughter's words and started screaming along.

"Daisy saw your son in person — she even knows his name!"

"Don't you dare keep trying to weasel out of this, Vera!"

I watched the three of them taking turns with their little charade, and all I felt was contempt.

I knew exactly why Daisy felt bold enough to lie so brazenly. The patch of woods behind Pack House was a blind spot in patrol coverage. No one ever passed through, and there wasn't a single witness to contradict them. The family had exploited that gap, spinning their lies without a shred of fear.

I was done arguing with these people.

I turned to face Alpha Kieran directly.

"Alpha, their testimony is full of contradictions and obvious holes." My voice was hard. "A few words aren't proof of anything."

Alpha Kieran met my gaze and gave a slight nod. His demeanor made it clear he intended to conduct a fair hearing.

Gloria panicked. She scrambled to her feet and screamed at the Alpha.

"Every word my daughter said is the truth!"

Harold's jaw was clenched so tight a muscle jumped in his cheek.

He glared at me through gritted teeth. "If you won't handle this, Alpha, I will."

I held Harold's stare without flinching.

"You think a few unsubstantiated claims are enough to convict my son? Pack law isn't something your family gets to twist to suit yourselves."

The watching pack members took my pushback as stubbornness. The jeering grew louder.

"The outsider Beta is exactly as unreliable as we thought!" someone yelled.

"She won't even own up to what her son did!"

I straightened my spine and let my voice rise above their curses.

"The truth hasn't been determined yet. I'd think twice before letting yourselves be used as someone else's weapon."

Gloria caught the crowd rallying behind her and grew bolder. She turned and fixed me with a venomous look.

"You said our evidence wasn't enough?"

A smirk crept across her face.

"Then take a good look at this."

Gloria turned and waved toward the edge of the crowd.

A woman in a dark cloak stepped onto the training grounds.

A witch. Clearly hired by Gloria.

Harold puffed up his chest and announced to the crowd.

"We brought a witch to perform a memory trace on Daisy!"

"The witch has already seen the attacker's face in the memory playback!"

The witch stepped forward to stand before Alpha Kieran.

"Alpha, I performed a memory trace spell on Daisy. In the playback, I clearly saw a young male who identified himself as Koda assaulting her."

As she spoke, she produced a crystal ball. She murmured an incantation, and a projected memory flickered to life above the crystal.

The image was blurry — impossible to make out the attacker's face clearly.

But everyone could see a young male figure violently tearing at Daisy's clothes.

In the playback, Daisy struggled desperately, whimpering in anguish.

"Koda, please let me go..."

The male figure let out a cruel laugh.

He backhanded Daisy hard across the face, the crack ringing out over the training grounds.

"Don't push your luck!"

He snarled viciously.

"You were smiling at me all day when I moved in — flirting with me, weren't you?"

The playback cut out abruptly.

The training grounds erupted into pandemonium.